Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Unboxing: One Beast of A Tablet

Although Samsung’s refreshed Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet won’t hit stores until Oct. 10, we already have it here in the Irvine office. Unveiled earlier this month, the device is meant to complement Samsung’s fresh new phablet emperor—both adhere to a similar design ethos, maintaining a rather strange plastic material made to look like leather, right on down to the stitching. Before you read on, know that the Korean company’s new tablet hero starts at $549.99 for the 16GB model.

Equipped with a 10.1-inch Full HD display, 3GB of RAM, 8,220mAh battery, microSD card slot, Android 4.3 and 8-megapixel rear camera, the new Note 10.1 certainly doesn’t lack in the specs department. In fact, this is easily one of the most powerful mobile devices you’ll find this year—the price certainly reflects what Samsung feels consumers should pay to possess such a device. When you can get a Nexus 7 for much, much cheaper, it’ll definitely be a hard sell.

In addition to insane specs, the devices sports many of the new software touches Samsung introduced with the Note 3. With a new Surface incoming, new Amazon tablets inbound and Apple gearing up for a completely refreshed iPad, Samsung’s Note 10.1 surely has some strong competition to go up against. The device on paper sounds like a contender, but will the experience harmonize what appears to be one of Samsung’s best tablets?